Newly confirmed Third Circuit Judge Emil Bove set the image of Donald Trump raising his fist after the July 2024 assassination attempt as his iPhone lock screen background.
The detail was reported by the New York Times, which cited three people with direct knowledge of the matter and the reaction it provoked inside the court.
The image reportedly caused “visible discomfort” among Bove’s colleagues on the 14-seat court, which serves Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
That is 13 colleagues who reportedly found the choice unsettling, a striking figure given the court’s composition and the political sensitivities now surrounding Bove’s appointment.
Bove’s conduct has attracted scrutiny beyond his phone habits, after he was seen attending a MAGA rally in Pennsylvania following his confirmation to the federal bench.
At the rally, Trump called immigrants garbage from “shithole countries” and mused openly about serving a third term as president.
Bove defended his attendance by stating he was “just here as a citizen coming to watch the president speak,” a justification that did little to quiet the controversy.
That explanation did not prevent an ethics complaint being filed against him, a complaint that now sits with the Third Circuit’s chief judge for consideration.
Bove has so far recused himself only from cases directly linked to his prior work representing Trump, leaving a wide range of politically sensitive cases in which he remains eligible to participate.
Those include sanctuary city challenges with direct implications for Philadelphia, as well as cases arising from ICE deportation efforts that are increasingly heading toward the federal courts.
Bove previously served as a Department of Justice official, where he reportedly directed his lawyers to take an aggressively defiant posture toward the courts during contentious legal battles.
The situation has drawn comparisons to the Justice Department’s separate effort to remove Judge Eleanor Ross from a Georgia election case, citing her attendance at a 2024 primary victory party for Fulton County DA Fani Willis.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon put the DOJ’s impartiality standard in writing, stating: “A judge who attended a party celebrating the election of a Democrat best known for prosecuting a Republican President for alleged election interference cannot then preside over a case concerning that President’s efforts to ensure election integrity.”
Critics have pointed to an apparent contradiction between that standard and the lack of similar scrutiny applied to Bove’s documented displays of personal affinity for Trump.